The present invention relates to a manufacturing technique for the manufacture of explosive circuits and it further relates to the product obtained by said process. Explosive circuits are generally used in multi-point initiation and explosive logic devices. These explosive circuits are often referred to as explosive trail networks, explosive circuit trails, and explosive logic circuits.
Explosive circuit trails are widely used for the initiation of various, sophisticated warheads. Circuit trails are generally composed of inert substrates having at least one continuous channel which is filled with conventional explosives. The substrate material conventionally used have been composed of inert materials, such as metals or plastics. Although metal substrates are more efficient than plastic substrates in promoting detonation in small trails, the use of metal does not allow one to examine and inspect the channels therein once the explosive is loaded into them. Therefore, the utilization of clear plastic substrates became popular.
In an explosive circuit, the substrate material encases or covers the explosive material so that the explosive is never exposed to the environment. The explosive circuits which are presently available are costly to manufacture and they must be machined or molded with great precision in order to be rendered operable. The channels or trails, which are to be filled with explosives, are molded or machined with excruciating effort. These channels are then, ordinarily, hand loaded with a putty-like explosive. Hand loading has been shown to be inadequate to insure consistent performance of the logic circuits. The explosives must be uniformly and consistently loaded into the channels to provided proper initiation of the warheads. If a void or imperfection exists in the explosive trail, it often results in failure of the explosive circuit. Any flaw, such as pieces of dust or chips of substrate present in the explosive trail from the machining of the substrate may interrupt the detonation path, and therefore rendering the entire warhead a failure.
As previously described, in the prior art explosive circuits, the inert substrates are composed of optically transparent materials so that the explosive trails may be thoroughly inspected. Prior to this invention there were no alternative ways in which to adequately inspect the explosive trails therein.
Explosive logic networks are generally taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,412,493 (Silvia) and 3,973,499 (to Anderson et al.). Neither U.S. patent suggests the use of silkscreening in the manufacture of said networks.
There is much waste in explosives used in the circuits already available. For example a putty-like explosive, such as PBXN-301 (manufactured by The Ensign-Brickford Company, Simsbury, Connecticut), which is extremely expensive may be loaded into the channels of the circuit by the use of vacuum-pressure. Vacuum-pressure is used to load the circuit to assure that the explosive trail network is correctly filled without voids. The likelihood of improper loading using this method is great, which is consequently costly to the manufacturer.
Use of the present invention enables one to utilize an inexpensive, efficient and accurate means of manufacturing an explosive circuit. Although explosive circuit trails are well known in the art, the method of making and the improved circuits produced using these methods is neither known nor suggested by the prior art.